Franklin puts fluoridation question on November ballot

FRANKLIN — Voters here will decide in November whether their town’s drinking water will be fluoridated.

Mayor George Kleen said so far the fluoridation question hasn’t been too big of an issue in town.
“Actually, we haven’t heard anything,” he said. “The main reason we passed the resolution was, if we didn’t pass a resolution, we would had to put fluoride in the water.”

he Franklin City Council passed a resolution 4-0 during its July 14 meeting to put an item on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election allowing residents to choose if the city’s water should be fluoridated.

In mid April, the Nebraska Legislature approved LB245, which requires all communities with more than 1,000 people to fluoridate their water supply.

Franklin has about 900 residents.

Towns and cities that don’t fluoridate their water could vote before June 1, 2010, to opt out of the law. Communities with drinking water that contains enough naturally occurring fluoride wouldn’t have to add any.

“My personal opinion is that it doesn’t stand a chance of passing,” Kleen said of the November ballot question. “I just don’t think people think it’s necessary. It’s not something people think is important enough to have. It’s way more expensive than what good it has.”

According to a Franklin Chronicle article covering the July 14 meeting, fluoridation would cost the city at least $5,000 per well, and the city has five wells.

The 73-year-old Kleen said he can’t remember Franklin having a history of voting on fluoridation.

“As far as I know they don’t,” he said, “not in my lifetime that I can remember.”